Using advanced search

You can use advanced search to narrow your search to specific sellers, locations, price ranges, and more. You can also use it to find completed listings, eBay Stores, or other members. Once you've found a search you like, you can save it to use again.

Finding items

To find an item using advanced search:

Click the Advanced link at the top of the eBay home page.

Tip: If you've already started searching and just want to narrow your search, click the Advanced link above your current search.

On the left side of the page, in the Items section, choose one of these options.

To find:

Select this:

Items for sale, based on criteria like price or item location

Find items

Vehicles, parts, and accessories on eBay Motors

On eBay Motors

Items for sale by a particular seller, if you know the seller's username

By seller

A specific listing, if you know the item number

By item number

Finding eBay Stores and items in Stores

After you've clicked the Advanced link, at the top of the eBay home page:

To search items in eBay Stores, choose Items in Stores in the Stores section on the left side of the page. You can find items in Stores using specific criteria.

Finding members

After you've clicked the Advanced link, at the top of the eBay home page:

To find an eBay member, click Find a member in the Members section on the left side of the page. You can find a member's Feedback Profile, any items that member is selling, and that member's eBay Store.

To find the contact information for a member, click Find contact information. You can only get contact information for members if you are involved in a recent transaction with them.

Advanced search criteria

All words, any order

Searches for listing titles that contain all the words you entered (or variations of them), no matter what order they appear.

For example, searching for "Sony DVD player" would find listings that had any of these titles: "DVD players Sony", "Sony DVD players", "Sony player for DVDs." Note: To find more matches, we automatically expand your searchto include words with the same meaning as the ones you entered.

Any words, any order

Searches for listing titles that contain any of the words you entered that appear in any order.

For example, searching for "Sony DVD player" would find listings that had any of these words in the titles: "DVD player," "Sony player," "Sony DVD," "DVD," "Sony," "player," and many others.

Exact words, exact order

Searches for listing titles that contain the exact words you entered, in the exact order you entered them.

For example, searching for "Sony DVD player" would only find listings had the words "Sony DVD player" in the title, in that order. "Sony DVD player in box" or "Sony DVD player used" would be matches, but "Sony player DVD" would not.

Exact words, any order

Searches the listing titles for the exact words you entered, in any order.

For example, searching for "Sony DVD player" would find titles that contained the exact words "Sony", "DVD" and "player" but in any order. "New Sony in box DVDplayer" or "DVDplayer, new Sony" would be matches, but "Sony DVD players" or "Sony DVDs player" would not.

Using search operators (Boolean logic)

Our searches aren't case-sensitive, so it doesn't matter whether you use capital or lowercase letters.

To refine your search and get more precise results, you can combine search operators with your search words. This is also known as Boolean logic.

Operator

What it does

Example

Quotation marks (also known as double-quotes)

Searches for the exact word or phrase in the listing title

"Action" DVD returns listings that have the exact words Action and DVD in the title in any order.

"Action DVD" returns listings that have these 2 words in the title in this specific order.

Parentheses around keywords separated by commas

Act together as an OR operator

Note: Use parentheses and commas together for best results

(purse,handbag) returns listings that contain either the word purse or handbag in the title.

Minus sign (-)

Acts as a NOT operator

Note: You need a space before the minus sign and no space after

Red -shoes returns listings that have red in the title and do not have shoes in the title.

How automatic search expansion works

In some cases, we'll automatically expand your search based on your intent, in addition to matching the exact words you typed. We may also expand your search to include the plural or alternate spelling of your search words. To see which keywords are associated with specific categories, see our keyword search category expansions.

Note: Using any search operator will turn off automatic search expansions.

Expansion type

What it does

Example

Keyword to keyword

Modifies your keyword query to search for either your original keyword, or a synonymous keyword from our dictionary

Searches for red shoes will return listings that have the words red and either shoe or shoes in the title.

Keyword to category

Modifies your query to search for listings that have a specific keyword in the title or live in a specific related category.

Searches for Harry Potter DVD will return listings that have Harry Potter in the title and have either DVD in the title, or live in the DVDs category.

Keyword to item specifics

Modifies your query to search for listings that have the keywords from the original query in the title, or have particular item specifics used in the item description.

A search for Nike Golf will return listings that have golf in the title and either have Nike in the title, or have Brand=Nike specified in the item specifics section of the listing.

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